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Consumers Want Retailers To Make It Easy. Why Is That So Hard?

Richard Kestenbaum

You may learn less from this article than from anything you’ve read in a long time. Because what retailers are telling me lately is so simple and obvious, you already know it and so do they. And yet, it keeps coming up in conversations with senior retailers and they keep struggling to do it. What I’m talking about is what Erik Nordstrom told me at the opening of their new Nordstrom Local store in New York. “It’s about giving it to the customer however the customer wants it and that includes rental, online, whatever they want.” Shea Jensen of Nordstrom, who developed the Nordstrom Local concept, told me the Nordstrom people asked themselves, “how could we make it easy to access services and product and our people?” Jensen said their research shows that “what customers all say most clearly is ‘make it easy.’”

Yes, “make it easy” is what everyone is telling me they’re trying to do now. What I don’t understand is, why is “making it easy” so hard? One reason is that so many systems and stores weren’t built with “making it easy” in mind. Another reason is that in the legacy world of retail, availability of product was their strength and making it easy was not as important. Now that the world for retailers is so much more competitive, it’s become critical to be responsive to customers. So “making it easy” has to be retrofitted into systems and cultures. That’s so much more challenging than when it’s built into the foundation from the start. “Making it easy” is one of the reasons young, new companies are chipping away at the established brands, their culture starts with that idea as an overarching goal.

How often does it happen to you that you’re trying to buy something and you ask yourself, “why is this so needlessly hard?” The most likely place for that to happen is when there’s an oligopoly as there is with your cable company, mobile phone company and airline. They have very little motivation to make it easy for you because they know you have very few choices. But where there’s a fragmented market it is ripe for disintermediation by a startup that can do it better because they make it… easy.

Here’s a great example of what legacy retailers are up against: A company called Framebridge has made it a lot easier to get something framed than it used to be. Instead of spending hours in a frameshop picking from endless choices, you use your smartphone or computer to pick what you want from a selection that is pre-curated to satisfy almost every type of consumer. Then you upload your image or Framebridge sends you a package to ship your art or document to them in. Framebridge returns it to you framed the way you want at a lower price than you’ll pay in a local frame store and the whole process takes far less time than the traditional way. Now Framebridge is opening its own stores and it’s capturing an even bigger audience. Framebridge wasn’t created with the idea of opening a frame store, they started with the idea that the process was broken. Its purchase path for customers and corporate thinking is geared towards that goal. The result is that an entire industry is being threatened because  someone has found a way to make it easy for consumers. That’s where retail is going now.

Another example is an online retailer called Snowe, which sells bedding, bathroom and tabletop products and whose landing page describes the process as “effortless” and “remarkably simple.” Andres Modak, cofounder, told me “Simplification was one of our core value propositions... it’s not just price…it’s about simplifying the process of shopping for the home and it informs the majority of our decisions.” Snowe offers curated selection and explains why Snowe believes each product is better. It gives guidance and high-touch service so consumers don’t have to figure it out for themselves and can feel secure in their decision. Modak calls the endless selection available at large stores, “the paradox of choice” where more isn’t better. Snowe recognizes that saving time is important and making it easy makes customers happy and loyal.  

No discussion about making it easy is satisfactory without addressing the one retailer who’s best known for convenience and that’s Amazon. Having Amazon as a competitor is the most challenging thing in retail today; Amazon has more resources than almost anyone and it is not held to the same financial performance standards. But Amazon has weaknesses too and it’s not impossible to sell against them. Buying Fruit of The Loom t-shirts, where Amazon can’t be beat, is not the same as buying an Oscar de la Renta occasion dress where creativity and advice is needed. Where Amazon is strong is where the consumer knows exactly what they want. Where Amazon is vulnerable is where there’s creativity required in the selection process or where the customer needs advice and guidance. Amazon reviews are certainly compelling, credible and useful. But when a consumer isn’t certain about what to buy, having a merchant lead them down a purchase path that helps them to a conclusion is a consistent way to fight back again Amazon. When the the product is branded and proprietary and it solves a consumer’s needs, consumers will pay a fair price and they’ll keep coming back. They won’t need discounts and percentages-off to motivate them; getting what they want is motivation enough and they will pay the reasonable price that gives the retailer the margin they need to grow and built.

Because Amazon is so focused and has so many advantages in culture and capital, it will continue to set the standard for convenience. Companies that are designed from the bottom up to make it easy for consumers will be able to compete if they remain nimble as they grow. But it’s a special challenge for legacy companies that were built on other principles to keep up, they have to keep making radical changes and experimenting to adapt. Legacy retailers that don’t dare to try new things whose outcomes are uncertain are going to fall further behind and find themselves beaten by the twin threats of agile startups and Amazon. It’s hard to say why “making it easy” keeps coming up in conversation lately but it’s a good thing. “Making it easy” is one of the most important characteristics now to build consumer loyalty and a critical part of the evolution for the survivors in retail.

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